Hi everyone! Welcome to The Repost Edit, a curated newsletter where I’ll talk about what I’ve reposted on my socials over the last few weeks, as well as sharing my thoughts about what I have about it. One of the goals that I have for myself this year is to develop a healthier relationship with social media, and I thought about how my digital presence really is comprised of shared content that isn’t my own, hahaha. So I figured that in addition to putting everyone on game, I also want to share how the content I consume — movies, books, tiktoks, tv shows — makes me feel, how it relates to my identity, and hopefully contribute to the conversation of what’s happening to the culture at large. So yea, I’m not sure what this will look like yet as I have many interests, but whether you’re looking for inspiration, or even if you want a peek at my social media feed, feel free to subscribe & share!
Honestly looking at the content I’ve consumed this week, I feel something not as on the nose as embarrassment, but more so a feeling of condolences for the girl I was last week (and this week LOL but how this manifested this week will be a bit surprising).
I thought of how the content I consumed last week was so serious and emotionally-charged. It was a bit of an emotional catharsis for me and I though to myself, is being attracted to heavy thematic themes a part of personality? I chugged through watching Inception, Interstellar, and Past Lives in a span of two days. And yes, I purposefully avoided spoilers for these movies for the past ten years. But going back to this, why are we attracted to thematic, intense cinema, aside from the critical acclaims? Interstellar is a story of human resilience spanning space and time, and Past Lives explores the grief of a love that had incompatible timelines with the most compatible people.
I had some of the worst weeks of my life when I watched these pieces, so why couldn’t I look away from some of the most heart-wrenching moments in cinema? Aside from compelling plots and visually-stunning graphics, I think I just want something to believe in. I think I want to get lost into the unknown and get down to what really makes me feel human. I’ve been staying inside for the past month and I feel this mounting dread to go outside when life felt extremely difficult. So maybe I gravitated towards these movies to feel a sense of not only awe, but willing again despite difficult hardships. Getting to the bottom of things deep down gave me that emotional catharsis when laughing at my FYP wasn’t enough.
I wouldn’t say that I stayed in that dark space forever though. Exploring themes of love in the first three movies (and catching up on my watchlist) let me to finally watching Didi and Love & Basketball, and it transformed love from a old, powerful force to moments of young relatability. It was so refreshing to see the internet age from an Asian-American lens, and seeing Monica and Q be together at the end gave a sense of joy that cleansed my palette.
Another breath of fresh air that felt purifying was the release of Kelela’s ‘In the Blue Light’, a live album cataloging her biggest tracks over the span of her career. Played at the Blue Note, one of the most prominent jazz clubs in New York City and a cornerstone of Black jazz excellence, this album documents a gentle and beautiful re-visiting of her work, fueling a sense of nostalgia that I never experienced before as a recent fan, and adding a layer of ethereal solace makes me look forward to her work as an artist.
Last one, I need to talk about ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Vuong. Written as a letter to the narrator’s mother, this book finally concluded my dive into intense media. Falling into the same category as the movies aforementioned, it’s a heavy book. And I didn’t expect it to be like this at all (I put it on my Christmas wishlist after seeing the book circulate on Tiktok). After reading this, it honestly made me even more sad, but I will say that it was the first time I had a cinematic experience while reading. The imagery is vivid, disturbing, impactful, and yet still remained ‘gorgeous’. I’ll be thinking about the vignettes in this book for a long-time.
I think deep shit exists for our consumption because everyone needs a little bit of drama to complement the bits of joy. I read in a textbook once that drama and comedy go hand and hand because it reflects the duality of humanity, and maybe I had such a heavy dose of comedy and unseriousness from the weeks before that I had to go off the deep end to satisfy my fill.
That’s all for now~ I didn’t share any reposts that I’ve seen on social media this week, but I will on my next newsletter. If you reached the end of this, thank you so much for reading, and I’ll catch you on the next one! Bye * closing thumbnail *